A priest has recently gone viral for slapping a baby in the middle of what was supposed to be a baptism. The holy man has received much ire from netizens who were rather angry that he would do such a thing to this poor, innocent kid!

The unnamed priest was first seen talking to the child who was already crying in the video. Perhaps the boy was afraid of the priest’s appearance or was not really comfortable with strangers.

Photo credit: YouTube / melbeauty style/fit/makeup

No matter what the reason why the child was crying uncontrollably, it was quite unacceptable for the priest to suddenly slap the boy just to try and make him stop crying. This is a child! Though we want to instill discipline in kids, slapping the kid to make him stop crying isn’t the right thing to do – and this priest certainly had no right to do that to the kid!

He must have realized that, of course, because soon afterwards, he hugged the kid and tried to reassure the boy that everything was alright; however, the kid only cried harder this time. Who wouldn’t be terrified by this priest, anyway?

After the clip went viral, there were those who said that netizens complaining about the priest’s behavior are just soft-hearted people and ‘marshmallows’; they explained that the priest was actually just giving the kid a ‘blessing’ – but many disagreed, of course! How can a slap be considered a blessing, anyway?

Photo credit: YouTube / melbeauty style/fit/makeup

And if you have not seen the slap, then watch the video closely. The priest had his hand wrapped around the boy’s face for some time but the slap was quite visible. The adults in the video even reacted to it, with one woman coming closer, as if to advise the priest not to do it again.

But the sure proof that the slap happened as a slap, not as a ‘blessing’, came in the form of the man (most likely the kid’s dad) who forcibly took the boy out of the priest’s arms.